Nature Conservancy of Canada needs $35,000 to help secure a wildlife corridor for New Brunswick moose cruising into Nova Scotia.

Moose in mainland Nova Scotia have dwindled to the point of being endangered. Conservationists have a plan for a wlidlife corridor along which amorous New Brunswick moose could travel east and hopefully get a baby boom going.

The environmental group is looking for $35,000 for its Moose Sex Project: a plan to buy 100 hectares on the narrow strip of land that connects New Brunswick, where moose are aplenty, to Nova Scotia, where they’re endangered on that province’s mainland.

The New Brunswick moose could help change that — as long as they can reach their dwindling neighbours to the east.

“In New Brunswick, the moose populations are quite healthy. However, the same can’t be said in Nova Scotia,” said NCC Atlantic spokesman Andrew Holland.

“Protecting and securing this area, rather than seeing it potentially developed, enables moose to keep moving on. That’s important because moose are like people: sometimes they go looking for love in all the wrong places.”

The NCC already has 332 hectares on the Chignecto Isthmus Natural Area, a wildlife corridor 21 kilometres across at its narrowest. It’s the land link between Nova Scotia and the rest of North America.

Moose sex aside, other wildlife such as bobcats and lynx already use the corridor, and its swamps and wetlands are home to waterfowl and a stopping point for migratory birds.

“There’s a lot of conservation value in the Chignecto Isthmus,” said Holland.

According to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, roads and growing towns threaten wildlife traffic on the isthmus “highway.” Moose are particularly vulnerable, as they tend to avoid areas with many roads.

In Nova Scotia, mainland moose — not to be confused with their distant cousins on Cape Breton Island, who are flourishing — have been listed as endangered since 2003.

The province’s Department of Natural Resources estimates there are fewer than 1,000 moose left on the mainland. Biologists believe bears, brainworm, poaching and habitat changes are at least partially responsible for the low numbers.

While genetic differences render Cape Breton moose poor mates for mainlanders, New Brunswick moose are a good match to procreate with their Nova Scotian cousins.

“The two are quite similar,” said DNR spokesperson Bruce Nunn.

Securing a land link for amorous Alces alces (that’s moose in science speak) fits in nicely with government plans to set aside 12 per cent of the province as protected land.

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